UP police files complaint against journalist, 3 others

Lucknow: UP police filed a complaint against four youths including a senior Delhi-based Malayalam journalist enlisting sedition and charges under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), among others, for allegedly fomenting unrest in Hathras. The charges relate to a conspiracy, at the centre of which is a website - formed to coordinate protests over the alleged gangrape followed by the forcible cremation of the victim in Hathras by the local administration - which the police claimed was involved in spreading “anti-nationalistic propaganda” and “causing riots”.

The charges also include a section under UAPA, related to “punishment for raising funds for terrorist act” along with sedition and some sections under the IT Act. The four have been sent to a 14-day judicial custody. The complaint comes two days after the four were detained on Monday while they were on their way from Delhi to Hathras, with the police claiming they had plans to disturb harmony in the state. Following the detention, the Kerala Union of Working Journalists filed a writ petition in the SC demanding release of one of them, journalist Siddique Kappan, from the “illegal detention”, saying he had gone there to cover the incident.

In the first FIR filed on Wednesday, the police accused the four of being part of a “larger conspiracy”. It said the platform Carrd.co and the page created on it ran afoul of many rules under the IPC and that the four are believed to have been part of the larger movement, thus requiring the police to investigate their role further on the basis of data on their mobile phones and laptops as well as pamphlets procured from them.